Skurken i informationssamhället. En diskursanalys av upphovsrättsdebatten i svensk och amerikansk dagspress 2001-2006

Sammanfattning: This Master’s thesis is an analysis of metaphors in relation to actors, and of discourses used in the copyright-debate in two major Swedish daily newspapers and one American: Göteborgs-Posten, Svenska Dagbladet and New York Times during the years 2001-2006. We aim to answer the following questions: Which metaphors were being used in the copyright-debate to create the archetypal villain, hero, winner and loser in editorials, debate and letters to the editor in the three newspapers? Which discourses did those metaphors relate or conform to? Which similarities or differences could be found when comparing the two countries’ newspapers regarding representations and constructions of villains, heroes, winners and losers in the copyright-debate? Firstly we distinguished who the actors in the debate were, following parts of Theo van Leeuwen’s actors’ analysis. Secondly we distinguished which metaphors were being used to describe the actors as either villains, heroes, winners or losers. The metaphors were then connected to theories of copyright in the information society in a critical discourse-analysis following Norman Fairclough. The discourses found were: the Market discourse, the Democracy discourse, the Information technology-discourse, the Generation discourse and the Creativity discourse. Frequently used metaphors in our material were those of war and violence. Another finding in our thesis was the fact that in the Swedish material politicians and the industry were described as major villains whereas in New York Times, the industry was the biggest villain. Villains were not primarily constructed in relation to heroes; villains were primarily constructed in relation to losers.